Keep Your Dog Happy and Healthy

Every dog owner wants to know how they can prevent dog health problems and ensure their dog lives a long, happy life. If you are one such dog owner, I have some good news for you. Preventing canine health problems is easy once you understand what is good and what is bad for your dog's health. To make things easier for you, I have listed six factors that influence your dog's health and life expectancy to a great degree. By following the tips given below, you can keep your four-legged friend happy, healthy, and active for a long time.

Food
There is a debate raging regarding the benefits of a home made or raw diet or one that is commercially prepared. The answer is that both are find if selected correctly.
If you are thinking of a home made raw diet, don't just find a recipe online. Make sure that your dogs nutrition plan is developed by a veterinary nutritionist and reviewed by your veterinarian. To save time, consider a raw "home made dog diet" that is prepared for you and available in a local pet store. It MUST be labeled "This food has been proven to be nutritionally complete or adequate for all life stages." Avoid labels that say "For supplementation or intermittent feeding" on the label.

If you like the convenience of a commercial diet, that is fine too. We prefer high quality canned foods from reputable manufacturers. Consider those that are veterinary grade such as Science Diet or Purina Veterinary. Other brands are fine too. We also prefer those foods that are marked "contain human grade ingredients. If you can't afford these types of foods, then just go to Wal*Mart and buy the store brand. It's AAFCO certified to the highest level, which is "tested and found to be adequate."
Canned foods contain more water than dry, which is preferred since water is essential for overall and urinary health in particular.

Water
Simple clean tap water is essential for maintaining health. As a guide, give your dog the same type of water you give yourself. If you town has high quality water, than tap is fine. If not, then consider simple filtered water from a pitcher. Make sure your dog drinks plenty of water and stays hydrated all the time. This is a surprisingly simple way to prevent dog health problems. Taking your dog on an extra walk once in a while assures that the bladder is empty, decreasing the change of problems such as canine urinary infections.

Exercise
Physical inactivity affects your dog's physical as well as mental health. Regular exercise, on the other hand, prevents stress, improves circulation, strengthens limbs, and boosts the immune system. So, adequate exercise is important to prevent pet health issues. Ball fetching, running, walking, climbing stairs, and swimming are some of the best exercises for your dog. If your dog is overweight, it is advisable to stick to low impact exercises and avoid high intensity exercises to reduce the risk of your dog getting injured.

Grooming
If you need to prevent dog health problems, you should understand the importance of keeping your dog clean. If your dog is dirty, its skin becomes the perfect home for fleas that carry parasitic infestations. It also becomes vulnerable to urinary tract infections as bacteria can easily enter its bladder through its urethra (tube that carries urine from the body). To avoid these problems, you should bathe your pet regularly. You can ask your vet to recommend a mild shampoo and soap, using which you can bathe your pet and keep it clean.

Vaccines
A lot of canine health problems like rabies, kennel cough, and distemper can be easily prevented by vaccinating your dog regularly. You should take your dog to your vet regularly and make sure all the vaccines and preventive medicines are up-to-date. This is one of the best ways to prevent pet health issues. You should be, however, aware of the fact that over vaccination can stress your dog's immune system unnecessarily. So, do not go overboard with vaccinations.

Health supplements
Your dog needs to eliminate the toxins from its body every now and then to stay healthy. In order to do so, it needs to eat certain medicinal herbs that most animals in the wild instinctively chew on. Since your dog does not have access to these herbs, you need to give it in the form of a health supplement. So, choose a good natural health supplement that contains herbs like milk thistle, mistletoe, echinacea purpurea, huang qi, and cat's claw. These supplements eliminate the toxins from your dog's body, strengthen its liver and other vital organs, boost its immune system, and make it naturally stronger. Giving a small dose of these supplements is, without a doubt, the best way to prevent dog health problems.
And that brings me to the end of this article, people. I hope you found it informative as well as interesting to read. The six factors mentioned above play a crucial role in your dog's health. So, by following the tips given above, you can prevent pet health issues and ensure your dog lives a long, healthy life.

Jeff Grill is an editor of the Pet Health Guide, an online resource dedicated to helping pet owners prevent pet health issues.
The author also suggests this site for natural treatment options that can help to prevent dog health problems.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jeffrey_Grill